JACUMBA COMMUNITY SPONSOR GROUP (JCSG)
January 18, 2023
To:
Karin Burns, Chief Executive Officer: [email protected] SDCP Board of Directors, Chair Joe LaCava: [email protected] SDCP Board of Directors, Vice Chair Terra Lawson-Remer: [email protected] From: Cherry Diefenbach, Chair, JCSG via [email protected] Subject: Opposition to the JVR Energy Park
Dear CEO Burns, SDCP Board Chair LaCava, and SDCP Board Vice Chair Lawson-Remer:
Jacumba Hot Springs is a small, rural, residential community located about one hour east of San Diego. With a population of only 561, our median household income is just $36,172 making us one of the most disadvantaged and underserved communities within the San Diego region. We are also a diverse community with a majority of our residents POC, 51% Latinx, 37% White and 11% Native American
As an unincorporated community of San Diego County, we are also a soon-to-be customer and stakeholder of SDCP. While we look forward to have a clean power alternative to SDGE and support the efforts of SDCP to offer alternatives to our region, you should be aware of our residents’ continuing broad opposition to the JVR Energy Park.
The JVR Energy Park is a 90MW, 575 acre solar facility (after most recent minor deviation) that would be built within Jacumba’s village boundary, directly adjacent to residences, our senior center, and our community park. Jacumba is currently struggling for a brighter future that will ensure a sustainable quality of life for our residents. Our town is entirely supported by tourism and the JVR project would significantly impact tourism in a negative way in turn impacting the opportunities and quality of life for our residents.
Our town is only 100 acres and the proposed JVR solar facility would dwarf our community by 500 percent, forever relegating it to a diminished existence in the shadow of industrial development. While we support the efforts to provide clean, renewable power for the San Diego region, we do not believe all projects are equal or that all projects should be supported by SDCP.
On May 27, 2021 the SDCP board of directors voted to approve a 90MW JVR solar Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) over the requests by local residents to deny the project due to its devastating impacts on our community. After a lengthy three-hour-long meeting, the PPA approval was the last agenda item, number 16--and the directors may have been tired and unfamiliar with the project’s unintended but negative consequences. We believe the SDCP’s approval of the JVR’s PPA was an unintentional misstep.
The JVR project is currently in litigation and the outcome of that ligation is not known. If the litigation fails to stop this project, BayWa, the developer of the JVR Energy Park would most likely require the negotiation of a new PPA to reflect anticipated increases to the project’s construction. (Future PPA negotiation would give the Board of Directors another chance to better analyze the PPA to ensure it aligns with SDCP’s goals as a community-focused energy provider.) We are therefore asking that the SDCP Board of Directors respect our community’s wishes just as you would for any other community that you serve and reject a renegotiation of a PPA for this project. Please reconsider the negative impacts of the JVR project because it will make Jacumba a sacrifice zone and it does not align with SDCP’s goals to benefit the communities. It is not too late for the SDCP to recognize the injustice of dumping a large industrial project on Jacumba, an already disadvantaged community.
We have heard the developer BayWa would consider a much smaller impact battery focused project adjacent to our community but would need the support of SDCP. We would ask the board and the executives of SDCP to re-consider this proposal as a more equitable alternative to an overbearing, high impact and inequitable project as currently proposed.
Please see attached Figure 1 and Figure 2 to better understand this project in relation to our community.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Cherry Diefenbach
Chair, JCSG
619-743-5224
cc:
Eddie Price, Chair, SDCP Community Advisory Committee: [email protected] Tara Hammond, Vice Chair, SDCP Community Advisory Committee: [email protected] Bill Powers, Protect Our Communities Foundation: [email protected] Figure 1
Figure 2